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Information About

Maria Anna Thekla Mozart




in Augsburg, Germany ; † January 25 , 1841 in
Bayreuth , Germany); called ''Marianne'', known as The Bäsle, cousin of
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart .



Born in Augsburg, Germany, as the third and only surviving of five daughters of Franz Alois Mozart, a younger brother of Leopold Mozart and Maria Victoria Eschenbach. Between October 11 and October 26 , 1777 , 19-year-old ’’’Marianne’’’ met two years older Wolfgang Amadé Mozart in her native Augsburg . The young people developed a very harmonic and most probably intimate relationship. Merely ten letters of their subsequent correspondence have been preserved, exclusively those from Wolfgang – the famous Bäsle Letters, a daring sketch of his “angel” included. Ever since, experts have been racking their brains about the by choice of words and writing style, which is highly unusual in character.

After Mozart’s return from Paris , Marianne accompanied him in January 1779 from Munich to Salzburg for about two-and-a-half months, where she possibly was hoping for marriage to Wolfgang. Her wish was shattered, and the former warm relationship cooled off. The last reunion was in Augsburg in March 1781 .

Marianne had been educated accordingly to her rank as citizen of the Free City of the Holy Roman Empire , and, as a teenager, gained further social education in Munich. She is described as having been beautiful, endearing, bright, humorous, and in love with life. In 1784, she gave birth to an illegitimate daughter, Maria Josepha, whose father, canon Dr. Theodor Franz de Paula Maria Baron of Reibeld, provided generously for mother and child.

Marianne Mozart remained unmarried her entire life. After the death of her mother, who had been widowed in 1791 , she moved to live with her daughter and son-in-law, postmaster Franz-Joseph Streitel, in 1808 . Already in 1803 the only grandchild, Carl Joseph, had died in very young babyhood. Moving to Kaufbeuren in 1812 , she and her family finally ended up in Bayreuth in 1814 , where she lived for 27 years until her death.

On January 25th, 1841, fifty years after her famous cousin, Marianne passed away at the age of 82. In her estate, the portrait of her cousin was found, which he had sent her from Mannheim in 1778.
Only 15 months later, her 58-year-old daughter died. Both were buried in the municipal cemetery in Bayreuth, but the graves cannot be found anymore. In the course of the years, two memory plates got fixed, one at the Old Coaching House, the other at the entrance of the municipal cemetery.


LITERATURE


(All listed below in German. English literature is to be added.)

  • Ludwig Wegele “''Der Lebenslauf der Marianne Thekla Mozart''”, Brigg

  • Verlag, Augsburg 1965

  • „ ''... und der nähmliche narr bleibe ich''“ - Verlag C.H. Beck, München 1990;

  • ISBN 3-406-34762-2

  • Martha Schad „''Mozarts erste Liebe''“, Wißner Verlag, Augsburg 2004,

  • ISBN 3-89639-416-9

  • Peter Dempf „''Mir ist so federleicht ums Herz''“, Eichborn Verlag, Frankfurt/Main 2004, ISBN 3-8218-0951-5



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